Thursday, November 13, 2008

Morocco Board fumes over Haidar RFK award

Today, a bunch of good people and I will attend a ceremony in Congress where Aminatou Haidar will receive the RFK Human Rights award she won in September. It's thrilling that she's getting such prestigious recognition for her work, and the support the RFK Center will give her in the future is even better. Plus, whenever Western Sahara people get together there's fun to be had.

But not everyone is so thrilled! Morocco Board, for example, is downright grumpy:

Several Moroccan-American grassroots organizations such as the Moroccan American Coalition (MAC) and the Moroccan Congress of USA (MCU) have expressed their displeasure with this decision and have urged those who have made it to consider that Ms. Haidar enjoys the freedom of travel in and out of morocco and has recently accepted a large amount of money from the Moroccan government as restitution and compensation but she still has not renounced violence and continues to incite violent acts

Later, Morocco Board complains that choosing this wild-eyed terrorist will embolden Polisario and sabotage the next round of Manhasset talks. That's absurd in two ways: everyone who knows her story realizes Haidar is about as non-violent as activists come, and Manhasset is dead in the water, RFK award or no.

14 comments:

How are you Will? We are so happy to hear you again after that break,i hope you are so well,we are glad of Aminato Haidar because she deserves RFK's price and the sahrawi people and the peace lover all over the world.We are waiting for your latest news will,we really missed you during the presidencial elections,have you voted for obama or mc cain?

Hey Will, good to see you again. Just in time. I'm reading on a dutch site about the Algerian- Moroccan cyber war which broke out today, according to alarabiya.net And I read about a team of lawyers who arrived in France to sue TV5 for libel since they claim Hassan II was involved in drug-trafficking. Another delegation went to the USA to sue the maker of the documentary. Their source is Hespress on this. Remarkable for in Holland we have a report of parliament stating the same thing. (See this link, If you don't mind google-dutch-english) Any more info on the JFK award reception?

The source of the news on the libel accusation against TV5 is in Arabic only here on: Hespress I have'nt seen it mentioned anywhere else but on a dutch-language Amazigh site. I'm not sure what to think about it, but I would welcome such a libelcase because it involves haschisch & Moroccan royalty which is an exiting subject indeed.

And I like you to know the USA gives me a better feeling the last few weeks now Obama is changing the political agenda and Aminatou has received the prize. I saw her speak in Holland one day and I was impressed because she had a good speech, ofcourse, but also of her elegant and respectful handling of pro-Morocccan Saharawi ladies who opposed her. I think she is not only a important leader and example for Saharawis but also for the global peace movement.

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